August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 7

9/3 MK

Unlike our last trip to Magic Kingdom a couple of days prior, we arrived around 8:30 to grab a good viewing spot for the Welcome show. If you get there early enough, cast members will set out hula hoops to amuse the kids (and parents). It looks like DD is a great hula hooper, but trust me when I tell you that this picture captures the split second between her letting go and the thing hitting the ground…

On our last day at MK we hit Fantasyland right off the bat, so today’s plan was to hit Tomorrowland first. If you want to ride the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway with no wait, that’s the only time to do it. The car drives about 4 mph, and is kept in its lane by an iron bar anchored in the road which your wheels straddle. If you drift too far left or right, you hit that bar, which jarringly forces you back into your lane.

DD isn’t old enough to ride alone, so I get the honor of being her passenger, while DW takes pictures.

Another Tomorrowland ride to do right when the park opens is the Astro Orbiter. It’s basically Dumbo, in rocketships, high up above Tomorrowland. You have to take an elevator to get there, which can really slow the line down once crowds start building. We got right on, and by “we,” I mean DD and me. DW hates this ride, so she takes pictures from below. I don’t know what it is about it but I get really dizzy on that ride. DD loves it though, and keeps the thing as high as it will go. There are some great views of MK from up there, but I’m usually too afraid to let go and take a picture…

From there we went on Buzz Lightyear 3-4 times in a row.  That’s another experience which is only possible in the first 30-45 minutes of the park being open. We had to get off the ride at the end but we could walk around and get right back on with no wait.

I was keeping a close eye on the clock, because we wanted to visit the Fairies in ToonTown, and to do so with little to no wait means getting there right when it opens, around 9:45. We had just enough time to ride the Tea Cups. I think this picture shows how much fun DD was having, and also kind of describes how DW and I were feeling…

We got right up to the rope at ToonTown and were the fifth family in line for the Fairies. They really did a good job with the theming, and the fairies each spend a fair amount of time with each child. It makes for a great experience, but also a long wait if you’re not there early. I don’t know how they’re going to handle Fairy meet-and-greets now that ToonTown is closed.

After that we made our way across the park, gathering FastPasses at Splash Mountain, Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for our return in the evening, and stopping to ride Splash and Big Thunder standby.

Crowds were the smallest of the trip and Big Thunder and Splash were walkons. We grabbed lunch at Columbia Harbor House, sitting in our favorite spot, which Jack Spence spilled the beans on…

After lunch we visited the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and headed back to the hotel by 1:30 for swimming and a nap. We like to take a good break when we’re planning on coming back to stay late in the park.

We returned to MK to use the FastPasses we gathered earlier, then monorailed over to the Poly for dinner at ‘Ohana. DD loves to participate in the parade and help hand out leis.

I love the food – especially the bread pudding a la mode.

After dinner we monorailed back to MK to stake out a place to view Wishes. We stopped on Main Street to get a photo in front of the castle.

We usually watch from a little trail on the right side of the hub. We can stand up against a fence, so no one can stand in front of us, and Tinkerbell flies overhead. We don’t have great pictures of the fireworks, but here are two of the better ones.

After Wishes we headed back to the hotel for the night. Our plans for the next day were to hang around Animal Kingdom Lodge, where my mother would be visiting us from Tampa.